So it seems we're already smack-dab in the thick of the
holiday season. Out There has been celebrating with a swank press lunch, attendance
at a seasonal cabaret, and some exciting news about a holiday-related
entertainment. This last bit up first.

"Thank you for sharing New Year's with me in the past!"
exclaimed comedian Marga Gomez
digitally. "This year I'm headlining in a new location, Brava Theater. Last
year I tried not working on New Year's Eve and injured my knee, requiring a
little surgery. It seems the safest place for me on this occasion is the stage.

"Pippi Lovestocking will be just one of my co-stars. I'm also excited because the folks at
Brava are keeping the bar open and hiring a celebrity DJ all night so we can
countdown New Year's and dance, just like they do in the movies!"

What in tarnation is Marga talking about? It's Brava's
New Year's Eve Comedy Fiesta with Marga Gomez and Funny Lady Friends,
a benefit for Brava Theater Center in SF. Gomez
headlines, with featured comics Aundre the Wonderwoman, Pippi
Lovestocking, Lydia Popovich and Eloisa
Bravo, coming up on Mon., Dec. 31, at 9 p.m.,
followed by a Countdown Party with cocktails, snacks, DJ, free champagne at Midnight,
and dancing until 1 a.m., at Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St., SF.
Tickets (starting at $30): www.brava.org or (415) 641-7657. Now that we
have all the relevant information, let's continue with the digital schmooze.

Out There: Oh Marga, we so missed you last New Year's
Eve!

Marga Gomez: Yes, the story about my last New Year's Eve is
true. I was trying a Dancing with the Stars
dance move at a party and tore my meniscus, and I was on crutches on and off
for two months after surgery. I promised myself if my knee got better, I would
never ever take off another New Year's Eve.

Our glamorous press lunch transpired at Hakkasan San
Francisco, which opened this past week on
the second floor of the iconic One Kearny building in downtown San Francisco, offering
modern Cantonese cuisine including dim sum, wine and sake flights, late-night
dining, and the Ling Ling lounge. Hakkasan is a global enterprise, with
restaurants in such hot spots as London, Mumbai and Dubai. San Francisco is
their first West Coast outpost, although they're also opening soon in Los
Angeles and Las Vegas.

The main dining area offers a view of bustling Market and
Geary Sts. through soaring arched windows punctuated by latticed "cages."
The room centers on a 25-seat V-shaped bar in cool blue light; two private
dining rooms; the main dining area, enclosed in those latticed "cages"
filled with Chinese screens; and the 50-seat Ling Ling, a signature feature reflecting
the old-school decadence of Chinoiserie.
The prominent materials in the space are stone, glass, steel, dark stained oak,
Calcutta marble, colored mirrors, silks and embroidered leather.

The interesting thing about being served on a lazy Susan is
that you're always engaged in a sort of low-grade tug-of-war with the diners
seated directly opposite you. As the Susan spins right and left, dishes go
sailing by, and the food bloggers at positions of 3 and 9 o'clock attempt to
freeze the luncheon's forward momentum for long enough time to snap away at their
food pics. Our staff photographer Rick Gerharter, seated to our left, was civilized enough to take his pictures before
lunch was served. Table manners are ever so important.

That's entertainment!

The holiday-time cabaret show we attended was none other
than B.A.R. society columnist Donna
Sachet's annual Songs of the Season showcase, benefiting the AIDS Emergency Fund, held at
the downtown boite Rrazz Room ensconced
in the Hotel Nikko. It was one show-bizzy set after another, with stand-out
performances from singer-songwriter Matt Alber – doing a
sort of Rufus Wainwright turn at the
piano, except with enunciation – and the eternal
showstopper Sharon McNight, who bracketed
a highly amusing Christmas in Modesto number with a pithy observation about the
late unlamented Ronald Reagan:
"Now they want a Reagan stamp? He killed my friends!"

Donna herself was in rare form and effected many costume
changes, and in fact her perennial put-on-a-show extravaganza, now in its 20th
year, has already received beaucoup
advances and bounteous promo publicity from many publications, glossy and
otherwise. So it would be redundant to read it all again here.

OT was in fine company, surrounded by B.A.R.
personnel like Queen Cougar, Michael
Yamashita, Jim Provenzano
, Matthew S. Bajko
, Thomas E. Horn
and others. During some numbers our plucky plus one
Pepi was transported back to his
storied boyhood in Las Vegas. We gave him the corner seat so he could stretch
out his legs, plagued as he has long been with a torn meniscus (see Gomez,
Marga, above).

Claude alley

There was an understandable error in writer Tavo Amador
's holiday book round-up "Stocking Stuffers
Between Covers" in our last issue. Writing about author Claude
Izner, Amador wrote, "Izner knows the
period and the city, which he recreates beautifully." But, reader Paul
Schmidtberger informs us, Claude Izner is actually
a woman! "In fact, she's two women, sisters who write under the pseudonym
Claude Izner. Here in France, Claude can be either a woman's name or a man's
name. Former president Jacques Chirac's daughter is named Claude.

"I've met the sisters Liliane
and Laurence, and they are truly wonderful. I'm delighted to see their work featured
in the B.A.R.!"